Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Everything's a hassle

Still no internet!

Overall things are going pretty well. The weather has been wet and cold but it looks like it will be turning around soon (hopefully it will stay that way!). We finished our first full round of bird surveys today (i.e., we visited each point once thusfar), so only 3 more visits to go! It has been relatively wet, so we got two frog call surveys in and have caught some salamanders under the coverboards. I think it has still been too cold at night for amphibians, so I expect more success when the nights are warmer. Since we've arrived, most nights and early mornings when we bird have been in the 40s. Not ridiculously cold, but still cool enough that the wildlife are not ready to be active:)

We did have our first bear sighting yesterday. The weather was cool, overcast, and breezy- just what bears like! He was very close to the active coal mining, which surprised me a little, but did move off when he saw us coming. We saw him from pretty far away, so I don't have any good pictures of him. It was a lone bear without cubs (medium sized, so I'm just assuming it's a him).

We are now staying at the house on UVa-Wise campus, which is right in the town of Wise and close to "civilization." By civilization, I mean Wal-mart, Kmart, Applebees, Pizza Hut, and McDonalds. That's about it! Charlotte and I are living with another girl from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. She is working as a physical therapy intern at nearby Norton Hospital.

I'm sorry for the lack of pictures, we hope to have the equipment we need to set up the internet at the house soon. I'll be sure to post the backlog of pics then! My time on the internet at the library is up, so I've got to go!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Being so far from civilization, when you're not working is there much to do? Do you have television access, or at least many good books???

Amy said...

I've been reading ALOT of books, and luckily now I at least have internet access at my house. No tv though. I have my technician and another housemate (she is a physical therapy student working at the local hospital), so we've been doing our girls' weekly outings (i.e., Applebee's bar Wednesdays, Grillin' Thursdays, Hikin' Fridays....etc.). Other than that, it's work, sleep, and R&R.